The Bytesmiths Editions Newsletter July 2000

Topics

Administrivia: "Those links don't work!"

First off, please welcome our summer intern, Coco Madrid. She is a June graduate from West Linn High School, and is planning to study graphic arts at Portland Community College this fall. Coco will be busy scanning, touching-up, archiving, print cutting and framing, and anything else we can teach her to help her prepare for college.

I've heard from a subscriber that he had problems viewing some of the links in the last newsletter. That's because they were in Adobe Acrobat format, which is a de-facto standard for viewing mixed text and graphics documents, but Microsoft Internet Explorer does not support Acrobat format. (Netscape Navigator comes with the Acrobat reader pre-installed.)

Some people don't like extra stuff installed in their web browsers, but Acrobat is well worth having. Many web sites now have Acrobat files of traditional print-based things, such as brochures, etc. In fact, US Government forms, including tax forms, come in Acrobat format on the Internet.

You can get a free Acrobat reader from Adobe. This will allow you to view any file that ends with ".PDF". Let me (or Adobe) know if you have problems with this link.

While we're on the topic, there is one other free viewer that Windows users should consider having: Apple's QuickTime viewer. (It is included on all Macintoshes.) This will allow you to view all ".MOV" files that are in QuickTime format, which will include any that I link to in this newsletter.

QuickTime is currently the #1 multi-media format for movie trailers, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. More than 50 million copies have been installed.

Windows MediaPlayer is used more often for simple movies and animations, and RealPlayer is used more often for audio, but QuickTime does all this and more, such as panoramas and "object movies." (Those TV commercials where everything stands still while the camera moves are all QuickTime object movies.)

More than 50 million copies of Apple's QuickTime 4 player have been distributed for Mac and Windows users worldwide. In addition, Nielsen/NetRatings has named Apple's web site the most popular destination for movie trailers on the web.

Apple invented QuickTime and began using the ".MOV" extension for it years ago. Then Microsoft "hijacked" the MOV extension for their own MediaPlayer, which does not have all the capabilities of QuickTime. This action was one of many cited by Judge Jackson as an example of Microsoft's abuse of monopoly power.

So if you click on this link, (1304k) and the Windows MediaPlayer starts up, you may want to install QuickTime instead. QuickTime will play almost everything the Windows MediaPlayer will play, but not vice-versa.

This is a virtual tour of Oregon's Silver Falls State Park. It includes 14 still images and two panoramas. To navigate, click on any icon on the map, or click on the right edge to go clockwise, or the left edge to go counter-clockwise. Clicking on the top should return you to the map from any image, and clicking on the bottom goes to my web site.

(Enter soap-box mode...) Bytesmiths is a Microsoft-free zone. I apologize if this causes some readers problems with links I include, but I strongly oppose the "Bill Gates' way, or no way" mentality that is taking over computing. I realize there are many reasons for choosing Microsoft products, but the company is not exactly known for "playing nice in the sandbox."

If for whatever reason, you choose to use (or are forced to use) Microsoft products, please consider supporting superior third-party technologies, such as Acrobat and QuickTime. If for some reason, you are unwilling or unable to install such things, you're stuck with what Microsoft allows you to look at, and you're going to miss out on a lot.

Don't worry -- I'm not going to fill this with anti-Microsoft stuff each month. We now return you to your regularly scheduled newsletter... (End soap-box mode.)

This Month

Carol and I each have two prints on display (64k) in the Bend, Oregon public library, as part of a juried exhibition titled "The Art of Light." We'd like to thank the Bend Library Art Committee for selecting our prints from among the many submitted. If you are in Bend between June 16 and August 20, please stop in to the library (on Wall Street) to see our work and that of many other regional photographers.

We continue our busy arts and crafts festival tour, with many new jewelry and photography items to exhibit.

June 30 - July 2 (Friday-Sunday): Art and the Vineyard, Eugene, Oregon, about 3 hours south of Portland. This is an established juried exhibition, and we're proud to be invited to participate on the quality and creativity of our work, as judged by a panel of experienced art professionals. Here are the 27 prints we'll be showing, including some new work, never before exhibited.

Art and the Vineyard is in its 17th year of continuous production in Eugene's scenic Alton Baker Park, and is expected to attract 30,000 people. In addition to the Artist's Marketplace where we will be exhibiting, there is wine and microbrew beer tasting, Art For Your Garden, culinary arts in the International Food Court, interactive art projects for adults and children, and a busy Main Stage that will include national and regional music, performance art, chamber music, dance, and theater.

Contact the Maude Kerns Art Center at 541-345-1571 for more information.

July 7-8 (Friday-Saturday): Everson-Nooksack Annual Summer Festival, about 5 hours north of Portland, 2 hours north of Seattle, near the Canada border and I-5. This is a small festival -- only about 4,000 attendance last year -- but the weekend was open, and we thought it would be interesting to visit this area instead of just zooming through on the way to Vancouver. Apparently, this festival is famous for blueberry pie eating contests, according to the local paper.

Contact Becky Buras of the Everson-Sooksack Chamber of Commerce at 360-966-5915 for more information.

July 12-16 (Friday-Sunday): Capital Lakefair 2000, Olympia, Washington, at Percival Landing on the shores of Budd Inlet, north of Capitol Lake. About 2 hours north of Portland, 1 hour south of Seattle. This is one of the largest festivals in Washington. All arts and crafts will be at Percival Landing, but other events in the area will include stage and music events, a street dance and custom car show, and carnival rides, capped off with a fireworks presentation hosted by AT&T.

Contact the Capital Lakefair office at 360-943-3119, or via email for more information.

July 22-23 (Saturday-Sunday): White Center Jubilee Days, Seattle, Washington, in White Center on 17th Avenue SW between 98th and 102nd. This is an all-round summer festival, not specifically an arts festival. Featured attraction will be The Kingsmen on Sunday, singing (among other things) their greatest hit, "Louie Louie." Perhaps you'll want to come and figure out what the words REALLY are... :-)

Contact the White Center at 206.763.4196 for more information.

July 28-30 (Friday-Sunday): Northwest Art & Air Festival: Art in the Park, Albany, OR, about 1 hour south of Portland. A juried fine-art show, this is the first of what is planned to be an annual event. There are 80 booths, all of original, hand-made art, in beautiful Timber Linn Park, convenient to I-5.

In addition to the fine arts and crafts booths, there will be hands-on arts activities for adults and children, performances on two stages, wandering performers and minstrels, free Friday evening outdoor concert, fireworks, salmon bake, wine tasting, and air balloons, including the Saturday evening Night Glow hot air balloon display.

We're excited to be part of this new festival so close to home, and hope it will be a big success.

Contact Jan Taylor of Albany Parks & Recreation at 541-917-7777 for more information.

Tour Schedule

Together with Crafted By Carol jewelry, we're continuing our busy summer schedule of arts and crafts fairs throughout the Pacific Northwest. If you happen to be in one of these locations at the right time, please stop by to see our prints and jewelry, and to say "hello!"

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